Who Exactly Does The Metropolitan Police Work For, Ma’am?

Led By Donkeys does it again with a “Who Exactly Does The Metropolitan Police Work For, Ma’am?” video meme that suggests Dame Cressida Dick works for Downing Street rather than British citizens

Metropolitan Police commissioner Dame Cressida Dick DBE, QPM doesn’t like the BBC’s Line of Duty drama series. She was, in fact, “absolutely outraged by it, but now the brilliant chaps behind the guerilla operation that is Led By Donkeys have used it to give her another bite in the bum.

Published as a video meme on Twitter yesterday, a 26-second mockup of Dame Cressida being questioned by the actor Adrian Dunbar – who stars as Superintendent Ted Hastings in Line of Duty.

The clip, which has been retweeted 17,500 times already and liked by nearly 53,000 Twitter accounts, begins with Dame Cressida stating: “We have a long established and effective working relationship with, er, the Cabinet Office.”

Superintendent Hastings then replies: “Who Exactly Does The Metropolitan Police Work For, Ma’am? Our citizens or Boris Johnson?”

Dame Cressida, head bowed shamefully, then answers: “Downing Street” before scowling whilst scratching her chin.

Again today, we join the majority in calling for Dame Cressida to finally do the decent thing: It is time for this incompetent woman to accept that the rotten force she presides over needs, as Dame Doreen Lawrence has repeatedly called for since 1993, wholesale reform. That reform must begin with a new commissioner at the helm and with Dame Cressida Dick pensioned off to somewhere far from public office.

The Met’s Catalogue of Failures

There is now zero public confidence in the frankly incompetent Metropolitan Police and one Twitter user, June Sim, rightly stated of it yesterday: “The Met has always been a byword amongst regional forces. We used to joke if you were rejected, they’ll take anybody. Not helped by the reputation confirmed by the Daniel Morgan report. Reputation already tarnished.”

Amongst the many failings of what ought to be the nation’s premier police force – aside from multiple allegations of racism and racial bias against its officers, its failure to deal with spiraling teenage murders and the many allegations of corruption and incompetence levelled at it – are:

• 1987 – Botched investigation into the murder of Daniel Morgan.
• 1993 – Botched investigation into the murder of Stephen Lawrence.
• 1994 – Botched investigation into allegations that Ghislaine Maxwell operated a brothel in South Kensington.
• 2009 – Unlawful killing of Ian Tomlinson during his arrest by Met Police officers.
• 2005 – Shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes by Met Police officers on the orders of Cressida Dick.
• 2013 – Strip searching of Dr Koshka Duff during her arrest for intervening during a Met Police stop-and-search of a black teenager.
• 2014 – Bungled investigation into allegations of historic child abuse made by Carl Beech.
• 2014 to 2015 – Failure to stop Stephen Port committing subsequent serial killings in spite of his already being linked to the death of a man outside his home.
• 2019 – Farcical mismanagement of policing of Extinction Rebellion protests leading to a bill of £37 million in policing costs.
• 2020 – Misconduct of Met Police officers during their investigation into the murders of Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman.
• 2020 – Found to be 2.17 times as likely to issue fines to black people relative to the rest of the population during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns.
• 2021 – Misconduct of Met Police officers during their investigation into the disappearance of Richard Okorogheye.
• 2021 – Met Police officer Ben Hannam found to be a member of a banned terrorist group.
• 2021 – Shocking conduct of Met Police officers after the murder of Sarah Everard by one of their own colleagues.
• 2022 – Apparent collaboration with Boris Johnson and his government to delay report into ‘Partygate.’